Chuck Bass
Gossip Girl character Ed Westwick as Chuck Bass First appearance Book Series: Gossip Girl TV Series: "Pilot" Created by Cecily von Ziegesar Portrayed by Ed Westwick Information Aliases C MotherChucker, Basshole, Chuck Basstard Gender Male Age 15-18 (book series) 16-18 (TV series) Date of birth May 19, 1991 Occupation High School Student CEO of Bass Industries (former) Billionaire Family Book series: Bartholomew Bass (father) Misty Bass (mother) Donald Bass (older brother) TV Series: Bartholomew Bass (father; deceased) Evelyn Bass (biological mother; deceased) Jack Bass (uncle) Lily van der Woodsen (adopted mother) Serena van der Woodsen (adopted sister) Eric van der Woodsen (adopted brother) Scott Ronsson (adopted brother) Relatives Book Series: Harry Bass (cousin) Address Plaza Hotel on the Upper East Side (book series) Suite 1812 The New York Palace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan 1112 Park Avenue, Upper East Side, Manhattan (TV series) Charles Bartholomew "Chuck" Bass is a fictional character in the best-selling Gossip Girl series of novels, and is portrayed by Ed Westwick in the television series of the same name. A secondary, antagonistic character in the original book series, Chuck is a main character in the television series, and serves as the show's antihero. Contents hide 1 Book series background 2 TV series background 2.1 Season 1 2.2 Season 2 3 Reception 4 Differences between the novels and TV series 5 References editBook series background Charles Bartholomew Bass was raised in Manhattan's most elite social circle. He is the son of wealthy businessman Bartholomew Bass and his wife Misty, and has a brother named Donald. Chuck resides with his family at the Plaza Hotel on the Upper East Side and attends school at the Riverside Preparatory School for Boys on the Upper West Side, along with scholarship student Dan Humphrey. Chuck is largely friendless, but is tolerated by the others because of his family's enormous wealth. He is described as having flamboyant fashion sense, with a penchant for scarves, and has a pet monkey named Sweetie whom he carries around with him everywhere. Lazy and vain, Chuck's only interests are sex and money, and he is frequently chided by his father for lacking ambition and performing poorly in school. He has a number of flings with numerous females and males, but his only serious relationship comes near the end of the series, when he begins dating Greg, a student who also briefly had a fling with a then-experimenting Dan Humphrey. Because of his poor grades, Chuck is rejected from every single college he applies to, and is ultimately sent to military school by his furious father. However, in the Gossip Girl spin-off The Carlyles, it is stated that Chuck never showed up to military school, and his whereabouts thereafter are unknown. editTV series background Charles Bartholomew Bass was born May 19, 1991, to the late Bartholomew "Bart" Bass, a self-made billionaire who owns the The New York Palace Hotel, where Chuck resides. Both of his parents are now deceased, as of "It's a Wonderful Lie," leaving Chuck with only his step-family, the van der Woodsens and uncle, Jack Bass. Chuck's mother's name is never revealed, it is rumored that her name was 'Evelyn', but it has never been confirmed.Chuck attends the prestigious St. Jude's School for Boys with long-time best friend Nate Archibald. He is the resident bad boy of the Upper East Side, originally portrayed as a Casanova type. After sleeping with Blair Waldorf in "Victor, Victrola", he has taken on a softer side, and is often shown to be nearly monogamous in light of his love for Blair. He is the male version of Blair when it comes to manipulation and revenge, the two often coming together to form sometimes-elaborate plans for vengeance and self-gain. Fan favorites, they are often described as equals. In the second season, Chuck reveals to Dan Humphrey that his mother, Evelyn Bass, died giving birth to him. With the death of his father, Chuck essentially returned to his old ways before finally telling Blair that he loved her in the Season finale. editSeason 1 Chuck grew up with Upper East Side elites Nate Archibald, Blair Waldorf, and Serena van der Woodsen. He is charming and very good looking. His father is Bart Bass, an entrepreneur, a successful businessman, who made a name for himself, rather than being born into money like Chuck’s friends’ parents. Chuck is often described as the bad boy of his circle, and although he can be manipulative, we learn that he has a sensitive and caring side to him, especially for those he cares about like his best friend Nate and love interest - Nate's ex-girlfriend - Blair Waldorf, who is the first girl he admits to loving. Chuck is notorious for being a playboy and is frequently shown sleeping with hired women for recreation. He also attempts to hook up with Serena and Jenny Humphrey in the pilot episode. Chuck was the only one who knew about Serena and Nate’s affair, but didn't tell anyone until after Serena came back, at the brunch his father was hosting. Chuck is shown as being fiercely loyal to his best friend, Nate Archibald. When Nate leaves Chuck's party angry and frustrated, Chuck winds up rescuing him from Carter Baizen and a risky poker game. He also said in a season one episode that the only things that matter to him are money, the pleasures money can buy him, and Nate. However, Chuck unintentionally betrays Nate by sleeping with Nate's long-time girlfriend, Blair Waldorf, a few hours after they broke up. Chuck had always liked Blair but as she was Nate's girlfriend he had to stay away. Until then. Blair had come to Chuck for solace after the break-up, the two of them being close friends and oftentimes, partners in crime. Upon seeing Blair boldly perform a burlesque dance at Chuck's club Victrola immediately after breaking up with Nate, he becomes immediately smitten with her, and the two have sex in his limo on the ride home. It is clear that Chuck has a respect for Blair that he lacks when it comes to other women, thinking of her not only as his best friend's ex, but as a close friend herself. This is evident when before they have sex, he asks, "You sure?" to which she answers him with a kiss. However, the morning after, Chuck finds her confessing at a Catholic church, and she tells him that they should never talk of what transpired between them, despite Chuck clearly not agreeing to this. At Blair's birthday party Chuck admits his feelings for her; that he cannot sleep for thinking about her and the presence of butterflies "fluttering" in his stomach. Blair isn't pleased with his sudden attention or amorous feelings, and just wants him to leave her alone. After Nate fails to reconcile with Blair on her birthday as she had hoped, Chuck consoles her and wins her over by giving her the $30,000 Erickson Beamon necklace she had put on hold that morning, expecting Nate to give it to her as her birthday present. They wind up having sex again, but unbeknownst to them, Serena spots them together. Serena later confronts Blair about this in "Blair Waldorf Must Pie", but Blair gets defensive and lies that her past two encounters with Chuck were simply "revenge sex". Chuck and Blair carry on a secret relationship for two weeks, while Nate begins to reconsider his decision to break up with Blair. In Hi, Society, Nate expresses his newfound interest in Blair, who he feels has changed. Later, in the middle of a make-out session between Chuck and Blair in her room, Nate comes to visit her and asks her if the two of them can go to the debutante ball as friends. At first, Blair is reluctant, but caves when Nate shows her the heart pin she sewed on his sleeve before. As they prepare for the ball, Nate senses that Blair is not really interested in him and may be seeing someone else, so he asks Chuck to find out who the secret guy is. Meanwhile, Chuck starts to feel jealous and insecure and fears that Blair and Nate might reconcile. So he decides to kill two birds with one stone and snaps a photo of Carter Baizen leaving Blair's apartment after picking up his coat. He convinces Nate that Carter Baizen is Blair's new guy, and an enraged Nate attacks Carter at the ball getting himself kicked out in the process, just as Chuck had planned. However, Blair cottons onto Chuck's machinations and promptly finishes things before going to look for Nate. Chuck looks for Blair in a last-ditch effort to explain himself, and ends up seeing Blair going to bed with Nate. A heartbroken Chuck leaves New York to avoid the pain of seeing Blair and Nate together. Nate and Chuck spend Christmas in Monaco, where Chuck blackmails Blair with their secret in order to keep her away from Nate. However, she eventually realizes that revealing their tryst would hurt him too, so she informs him that it's over. Seething with jealousy, Chuck retaliates by writing an anonymous text to Gossip Girl detailing that Blair has slept with two guys in one week. The news spreads quickly, which ruins Blair and comes back to haunt him. After seeing the Gossip Girl news about Blair, Nate asks Jenny if it is true, and Jenny, who overheard Serena telling Dan, tells him that Chuck slept with Blair. As a result, Nate and Chuck have an explosive fight outside the school and Nate ends their friendship. At the end of the day, a devastated Blair returns to Chuck, saying she has no one else. To her dismay, he rejects her rather cruelly and tries to remain loyal to an estranged Nate. In the meantime, Chuck's father and Serena's mother have become engaged, causing them to become step siblings. His father ended up kicking him out of the apartment to live back in his suite after Bart and Lilly became engaged and moved in together. Chuck constantly annoys Serena, but takes a brotherly liking to Eric, Serena's little brother, looking out for him and talking to him about his sexuality. When Serena's old friend Georgina Sparks returns, Chuck does his best to help his soon-to-be stepsister through the difficult time. He eventually teams up with ex-friend Nate and ex-lover Blair to save Serena and counter Georgina's evil. With help from Blair, Nate, and Chuck, Georgina is eventually turned in to her parents and sent to a bootcamp. Nate, Blair and Chuck are dubbed "The Non-Judging Breakfast Club." At his father's wedding to Serena's mother, Chuck alerts Nate when he sees the Captain, Nate's father, appearing to buy cocaine. This causes the two friends to make up and, upon realizing Chuck is actually in love with Blair, Nate gives his blessing. While giving his best man speech, Chuck sees Blair and puts down his notecards, instead talking about true love and perseverance, inspired by his complex relationship with her. While dancing with Blair, he apologizes for the terrible things he said to her in the past and tells her that she doesn't belong with Nate. She replies, "You don't belong with anyone" and they kiss. He vows that this time they will take it slow and do it right, showing a softer, more romantic side of him. The two seem to be going strong until the day that he and Blair are set to leave for Tuscany for summer vacation when his father talks to him about becoming a better man and changing because of his relationship with Blair. Now having second thoughts about spending the summer with Blair, he ditches her for their trip to Tuscany, saying he cannot make the flight, and offers a rose to Lily Van Der Woodsen's interior designer, Amelia. Blair, unaware of Chuck's intentions, believes that his father must be running late and Chuck will probably catch the next commercial flight. editSeason 2 Season Two begins with Chuck's quest to try and win back his "true love", Blair Waldorf in the season premiere "Summer, Kind of Wonderful". Blair, however, reeling from the fact that he ditched her at the airport, has hooked up with a handsome, seemingly perfect Georgetown guy by the name of James, originally in an attempt to make Chuck jealous. Even though he immediately sees through her ruse, he is crushed when he spots Blair's heart pin on James's sleeve, and she succeeds. Chuck is suspicious of James and orders a background check on him. At the posh White Party, Blair makes out with James in a blatant attempt to provoke Chuck, but James finally catches on and is devastated that he was being used. She admits that he bores her, but they later reconcile when James admits that his name is actually Marcus and he is a British lord, just as Chuck gets a call with this same information. Dazzled by this revelation, she decides to carry on their relationship, but Chuck tries to stop her and admits that the reason he abandoned her was out of the fear that she would see "him," implying that he was afraid to let her get too close. However, when Blair asks him to tell her that he loves her "Three Words. Eight letters. Say it and I'm yours.", Chuck is unable to say the words. Blair, obviously disappointed, decides to leave with Lord Marcus. Chuck, who is still very much in love with Blair regrets the mistakes he made and drowns his sorrows in alcohol. Chuck agrees to let Dan Humphrey hang around him for an evening out of boredom, not knowing that Dan plans to use him to write a story. Later, Dan finds out that Chuck is actually love-starved for his father's attention after he witnesses a failed attempt of Chuck setting up a meeting with his father over the phone. The two then bond after Dan later stands up for him during a bar fight, and they wind up in a jail cell together where Chuck becomes soft for a moment and opens up to Dan about his father. Chuck believes his father hates him because Chuck's mother, his father's "beloved wife", died giving birth to him. When Chuck is bailed out of jail by his father's lawyer, he promises Dan he'll try to get him out, too. However, Chuck accidentally finds out that Dan was trying to get close just to use him for his writing. Enraged, he says to Dan he will regret messing with him and that he lied about his mother dying at his birth. In "New Haven Can Wait", while everyone is visiting college, Chuck and Nate stop at Yale University. He hopes to run into the "Skull and Bones" group, who eventually kidnaps him. He wants to become a member, and in order to do so, he must show his "worth" in several ways, including giving up Nate (who is hated because of his embezzling father). Instead of betraying his best friend, Chuck sends them to Dan, telling them he's Nate. The Skull and Bone's kidnap Dan, take off his clothes (except for underwear) and tie him to a statue. When Nate hears what he's done, Nate ends their friendship and befriends Dan, leaving Chuck alone. In "O Brother Where Bart Thou" Chuck, maddened with grief and angry at Lily, his stepmother for cheating on his father, attends his fathers funeral with Blair and Nate holding him up in support, and while there he disowns the van der Woodsens and is rude to Lily when she tries to talk to him. Enraged, he leaves the wake to flee to a bar, but Blair follows him, telling him she loves him. Confused, Chuck leaves Blair alone on the street, only to go to her house the next day to apologise and they fall asleep together. However, when Blair awakes, Chuck is gone from her bed, and just a note that apologises to her remains. Chuck has fled to Thailand. Chuck's Uncle Jack brings Chuck back from Bangkok, and Blair continually tries to help him get over his father's death, at one point even talking him down from the edge of a building. When his father's will is read, it is revealed that his father has left him the company. However, his Uncle Jack sets Chuck up so the board will see his partying ways, and so Jack wins the company. When Chuck goes to see Blair, she tells him she 'can't watch him self-destruct any longer'. Chuck leaves her house dejected. Chuck teams up with his ex-stepmother to get rid of Jack, and they come up with the perfect way - Lily must become his legal guardian. Chuck signs the papers while Jack becomes angered, and then he tries to rape Lily at the opera for adopting Chuck. However, Chuck gets there in time and punches his uncle. He decides to move back into his old home with Lily, Serena and Eric. Chuck is jealous and hurt when Blair begins dating his best friend Nate again, and goes to Nate's ex girlfriend Vanessa for help. However, their plan to break Blair and Nate up fails and the two end up sleeping together. Chuck then runs into Blair on the street and they begin plotting against Serena's new boyfriend (who turns out to be a con artist). Jealous Nate asks Blair to move in with him, but Blair doesn't accept, instead she asks Chuck to tell her how he really feels about her. He tells her it was just a game, and Blair runs away crying, but Chuck later tells his sister Serena that he does love Blair but he can't make her happy. However, at Prom, Chuck makes it possible for Blair to have her dream prom, and proves to himself that he can make her happy. In the second season finale, it is revealed to everyone that Chuck slept with Vanessa and Blair slept with Chuck's uncle so that he would find Chuck and bring him back. Blair tries to explain to Chuck why she did it and that she loves him, but Chuck runs away, hurt. However, one week later he returns to New York and goes to see Blair with presents for her, and he finally tells her that he loves her. The two reunite. editReception Entertainment Weekly named Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf number one in their "Best Dressed TV characters of 2008" list, as well as in their "Best Performances" list for Ed Westwick, alongside co-star Leighton Meester. editDifferences between the novels and TV series In the books, Chuck is bisexual. The television series has not addressed whether Chuck is anything other than heterosexual, but the character will have a same-sex kiss in an upcoming episode to help his girlfriend, Blair. In the book Because I'm Worth It, it is stated that Chuck's birthday is in September. In the tv series it is in May. In the books, Chuck attends Riverside Prep on the Upper West Side with Dan Humphrey, while Nate attends St. Jude's; on the show, all three attend St. Jude's. In the books, he never actually keeps a girlfriend, and only sleeps around; on the show he develops serious feelings for Blair, and by the end of season 2, they confess their love for each other. In the books, Chuck is a supporting antagonist character; on the show he's a main/anti-hero character. In the books, Nate isn't actually very close with Chuck (what they think of each other isn't really implied) and they only see each other on social gatherings.; on the show they are best friends. In "Seventeen Candles" Chuck tells Nate that "cares about three things... Money, the pleasures money brings him, and you Nate." In the books, he has a brother named Donald Bass and a cousin named Harold aka Harry Bass; he has no siblings on the show. In the books, Chuck is simply tolerated by the other main characters; on the show he has three best friends - Nate, Blair (who he eventually falls for), and Serena (who eventually becomes his stepsister). He also becomes good friends with his stepbrother, Eric. In the books, Chuck’s parents are Bart and Misty Bass. Bart's background and occupation is similar to that of the tv show and his mother is a socialite; in the show however, the story with his mother is inconsistent. In the pilot, Chuck makes reference to her being alive but throughout the rest of season one, the mother is not seen or talked about again. Finally in the second season, the audience is made aware of her death when Chuck admits to Dan Humphrey that she died giving birth to him and thus indicating a reason in Chuck's opinion, why his father isn't eager to reach out to him or spend any real quality time with him. He feels he is the blame for his mother's death.